“I asked how classes went.”
“Oh.” Benji ate another forkful of fish, savoring the new taste on his tongue. “You know Mr. Jervais?”
“The one you thought was a dick, but now you kind of respect?”
“That’s the one,” Benji said, flattered that Noah remembered his exact words. “Uh, he told me I was doing good work with the new shit. Pulled me aside after class and everything.”
Noah hummed into his wine. He lowered the glass, tongue gliding over his lips to clean the droplets. “What did he say?”
Benji tore his gaze away from Noah’s wet lips. “What? Uh, that it was… more…More. He liked the pasta painting.”
“More more,” Noah agreed, mouth twitching. “I liked that one too. I was thinking about hanging it up in the front hall.”
Benji laughed so loud that a passing waitress glanced at him. He avoided her eyes until she passed, trying to force his blush away.
“Come on,” he scoffed. “Some of the shit on your walls must’ve cost tens of thousands of dollars. You can’t shove my shitty pasta painting up there with them.”
“Don’t call it shitty. I like it. It’sintimate.” Noah smiled, trailing his foot up Benji’s leg. “You need to learn how to take a compliment.”
“I can take a compliment,” Benji mumbled. It was difficult to focus on anything that wasn’t Noah’s shoe gliding up his shin. His neglected cock jerked hopefully in his boxers.
Not yet,he told it, shifting uncomfortably. He didn’t want some quick fuck in a restaurant bathroom. He hadn’t come in aweek. He needed Noah to take him home and ruin himproperly.
“I don’t think so,” Noah said thoughtfully. “You deflect or you hide. We should do something about that, Benjamin.”
Benjamin groaned. “You’re not going to make me say I’m gorgeous again, are you?”
Noah cleared his throat. “Benjamin?—”
“Oh god.”
“I think your painting is lovely,” Noah finished, sliding his shoe slowly up Benjamin’s thigh.
Benjamin swallowed. His first instinct was to roll his eyes, make some glib joke. But Noah’s shoe was so close to his hardening cock, and Noah was looking at him so sweetly. He opened his mouth to grudgingly say thank you.
“Shut up,” he said instead.
Noah’s mouth twitched. “Let’s try that again.Benjamin. I wasn’t joking when I said it was intimate. I was genuinely touched when I saw that painting. Not just because it stuck with you enough to paint it, but because of the way you portrayed it. You took those takeout pasta containers, and you turned them into something really beautiful.”
Benji squirmed, his cheeks hot. He was going to get a Pavlovian response to blushing if Noah kept making him hard while he blushed so often.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
“That’s a good start.” Noah’s shoe traveled up, tantalizingly close to where Benjamin wanted it. “I’m proud of you. In fact, I think you deserve a reward.”
Benji’s eyes slammed shut as Noah’s shoe pressed finally,mercifully, into his cock. He bit his cheek, stifling a moan as his cock pulsed against the pressure.
“Can I—?” Benji’s throat clicked, glancing around the restaurant. No one was near, but the blush had reached his ears by the time he managed to ask, “Can I come?”
Noah grinned, looking around at the very public place they were in. “Already?”
“No, when—” Benji shuddered as Noah pressed harder, rubbing his cockhead through the layers. “Shit. When you take me home, can I come?”
Noah’s kind eyes glinted. He had somethingplanned, Benji realized with a hot jolt.
“As fast as you want,” Noah promised.
CHAPTER 6
